The brief

pb brief <ID> compiles a context pack from the graph. That pack is what an agent should read instead of opening one task file and guessing the architecture.

pb brief TASK-001
pb brief TASK-001 --budget 4000
pb brief TASK-001 --format json

--json on the root command also forces JSON. --format json is the same payload.

Authority order

Sections are sorted so the most binding material is first:

1. Business rules (rule, related-rule)
2. ADRs (adr, adr-chain)
3. The target item
4. Parents (story → epic, …)
5. depends_on (and everything else)

A line in a brief must change agent behaviour (BR-003). Linked active rules and accepted ADRs win over improvisation.

What is walked

Starting at the target:

• Full body of the target
• Parent chain at criteria depth (acceptance criteria, Outcome, or Scope)
• business_rules and adrs on the target and its nearest parent, at statement depth (Rule / Decision / first paragraph)
• Related rules; ADR supersede chain at title depth
• depends_on transitively at title depth
• Done siblings that share a parent, title only
• code_map paths whose key matches the task area or a tag

Repo maturity is not in the brief. Skills call pb profile separately; the level is derived at read time and never stored.

Depths

Depth	Body included
full	Entire markdown body
criteria	Acceptance criteria, Outcome, or Scope
statement	Rule, Decision, or first paragraph
title	Frontmatter only (no body)

Budget and truncation

--budget is a token ceiling (characters / 4). When the pack would exceed it, lower-priority sections drop to fetch stubs instead of disappearing.

JSON fields:

• truncated — true if the budget cut anything
• tokens / fullTokens — used vs unbounded
• dropped — { id, title, role }
• fetch — { id, title, fetch } so the agent can pull the rest
• diagnostics — includes brief_truncated (warning, never silent)

Session-start hooks use hooks.prime_budget (default 6000). Same truncation rules.

Contradictions

The brief prepends warnings you must not ignore:

• SUPERSEDED by ADR-NNNN — do not follow this decision.
• DEPRECATED — treat as historical only.
• REJECTED — this decision was not taken.
• DEPRECATED rule — do not enforce.

Example

# Brief: TASK-001

### BR-001 — Money is a string
_rule · business-rule · active_

JSON money MUST be a string. MUST NOT be a float.

### ADR-0001 — Numeric money
_adr · adr · accepted_

Store money as decimal strings.

### TASK-001 — Transaction API
_target · task · todo_
…